Denise Garcia

Hello! My name is Denise Garcia, LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) and LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor). I have been a practicing therapist for 19 years. My experience includes working with a short-term crisis stabilization psychiatric facility where I assisted patients with stabilizing symptoms related to trauma, depression, anxiety, and bipolar diagnoses. From there, I moved into working with a child-placing agency assisting foster and foster-to-adopt families, parents, and children. Additionally, I worked in and co-owned a private practice, where I worked with individuals, couples, families, and adolescents dealing with mood disorders, life and career transitions, and relational stressors. I moved out of private practice to explore an opportunity working with a managed care company where I assisted members with behavioral health coaching/disease management, in order to assist those with chronic health conditions who were struggling with mental health, as a result. Finally, I currently continue to see clients part-time in private practice, while working full-time at a military installation where I provide counseling services to active-duty military soldiers and military families.

In working with clients, I believe that it is important to meet the client where they are and to move the client towards goals that are right for them based on their belief system, culture, and strengths. I believe every individual is unique, and therefore, each client deserves a treatment approach tailored to their individual needs. As a result, I draw from a variety of methods and interventions appropriate to each person. Some of the methodologies I use, include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Gottman methods, Narrative Therapy, Psycho-education, Strength-focused, and Client-Centered approach.

I love to bring humor, creativity, and warmth into therapy, but I understand that the most important thing is to create a safe therapeutic environment where clients can feel comfortable and empowered. The first and most important thing when choosing a therapist, is that you feel comfortable with that therapist. With a sense of security in the therapeutic relationship, I will first work to gain an understanding of your problems and needs, in order to then set specific goals with you (not for you), and then provide tools to help you move toward those goals, such as homework, as appropriate, education, worksheets, books, videos, and even other means of moving toward goals based on you or your loved ones learning style(s).